The Destruction of the George Garvin Brown Garden

George Garvin Brown Garden

This garden was located along Muhammad Ali Boulevard.  Close by was Martin Luther King Jr. Park at Chestnut Street.  Perhaps Muhammad Ali brought new light to some of Dr. King's message in Muhammad Ali's life.  In the last thirty years of his life  Muhammad Ali sought to solve problems of conflict on many stages.  The garden was to provide the message of making conflict less intense. This photograph was taken of the George Garvin Brown Garden with the trees decorated with snow.

The Center for Interfaith Relations created the garden in Louisville.  The symbols built in the garden communicated spirituality, tolerance and the faith traditions of many faiths. Moving water was central to the garden.  Two fountains symbolized themes of creation and reconciliation.  The walkways were granite arcs that symbolized the foundations of the sacredness in faith.  The completed garden earned design awards from the Kentucky Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects and the Boston Society of Landscape Architects.

The garden has been demolished.  All that is left of the garden is the few photographs that were taken of the garden.

The Shore at Hampton, Virginia

Sunlight on Chesapeake Bay, from Fort Monroe

Fort Monroe was built to protect the Chesapeake Bay at Hampton, Virginia. The land and water side is beautiful at this historic site.    The need for a fort overlooking the Chesapeake Bay was justified after the War of 1812.   The construction of the seven sided stone fort was authorized in 1814.  This area is rich with history. The work began in 1819.  The stone fort ended up being the nation’s largest stone fort.  The fort was built with a moat surrounding the structure.  The stone fort was completed in 1834 but the completion of the stone fort was not the end of construction at Fort Monroe.  Several batteries were built alongside the stone fort as coastal artillery changed.  Companion fortresses at Fort Wool and at Virginia’s Eastern Shore were made so the guns could cover the sea far out from the shoreline.  During the Endicott period in military weapon development seven batteries of disappearing guns were built to defend the area at Fort Monroe. These batteries were installed primarily in the period of 1897 to 1901.  The disappearing gun was fitted with a giant hinge assembly that allowed the gun to rise above the wall of the battery and then sink down behind the wall after the gun was fired.  This was the reason the gun was named the disappearing gun.

Fort Monroe continued to have coastal artillery until 1945.  The fort at Corregidor had similar coastal artillery that was used in the Pacific theater of World War II.  At the time of 1945 it was decided that coastal artillery was outmoded.  The Army removed the batteries from Fort Monroe.

Though the batteries are gone the appeal of the Fort remains.  Great crowds want to go there.  Preservation and care are needed to keep it as a place that impresses. 

"The great wilds of our country once held to be boundless and inexhaustible are being rapidly invaded and overrun in every direction, and everything destructible in them is being destroyed. How far destruction may go is not easy to guess. Every landscape low and high seems doomed to be trampled and harried."

John Muir

I think of the destroying of our natural places.  It is on my mind.  Our plans will consider how to care for our natural places or we will lose them.

Coastal artillery at Hampton, Virginia at Fort Monroe

Battery Alongside of the Stone Fort at sunset

Fort Monroe was built to protect the Chesapeake Bay at Hampton, Virginia from invasion by a foreign country.  The need for a fort overlooking the Chesapeake Bay was justified after the war with the British known as the War of 1812.  This war resulted in the lyrics that became the national anthem.  The construction of the seven sided stone fort was authorized after the British marched through Washington, DC in 1814.  The work began in 1819.  The stone fort ended up being the nation’s largest stone fort.  The fort was built with a moat surrounding the structure.  The stone fort was completed in 1834 but the completion of the stone fort was not the end of construction at Fort Monroe.  Several batteries were built alongside the stone fort as coastal artillery changed.  Companion fortresses at Fort Wool and at Virginia’s Eastern Shore were made so the guns could cover the sea far out from the shoreline.  During the Endicott period in military weapon development seven batteries of disappearing guns were built to defend the area at Fort Monroe. These batteries were installed primarily in 1897 to 1901.  The disappearing gun was fitted with a giant hinge assembly that allowed the gun to rise above the wall of the battery and then sink down behind the wall after the gun was fired.  This was the reason the gun was named the disappearing gun.

Fort Monroe continued to have coastal artillery until 1945.  The fort at Corregidor had similar coastal artillery that was used in the Pacific theatre of World War II.  At the time of 1945 it was decided that coastal artillery was outmoded and the shore batteries were taken away from Fort Monroe.